The Secret to Perfect Roasted Potatoes

March 18, 2014

We eat a lot of potatoes around here.

It is an easy, inexpensive, whole food that ends up on our plate at least 2 or 3 times a week. We mash them, fry them up for breakfast (in coconut oil), and my favorite way—roasting them in the oven. They’ve kind of gotten a bad wrap because they are “carby” and “starchy" but come on people, they are a vegetable and come from the ground— so lets eat 'em. Like I’ve said before, I don’t really care how many calories or carbs are in something, I just want to eat real, wholesome food.

Potatoes are loaded with minerals that are necessary for our body to work and thrive properly (like magnesium, copper, and zinc). They are a great source of vitamin C, B6, potassium, antioxidants, and fiber. Ideally, you should buy them organically, and even better—from the farmer down the road. (watch this to learn why—its a little slow moving, but worth the watch.)

So the secret to the perfect Roasted Potatoes isn't that big of a secret, but it makes ALL the difference in the world. BUTTER. I used to use olive oil, and never could get them as crispy and golden as I do with butter.

And about the butter. I keep saying I’m going to do a post on why I love good fat, but for now let me just say that Butter is actually VERY good for you and we eat a lot of it. For one, good FAT helps you absorb all those vitamins and minerals you’re eating. Cholesterol is actually imperative for brain and nervous system development and needed to maintain a healthy digestive system. Grass-fed, organic butter is loaded with Vitamin A, D, K2, and E, as well as a slew of trace minerals. A superfood I tell ya. Not to mention it makes EVERYTHING better. I mean everything.

So just try to retrain your brain that BUTTER IS NOT BAD. (and throw out all that Margarine and “spread” because its about one molecule away from being plastic) I don’t care what they say— I can believe (and can tell) it IS butter. (source)

(Forgot to take a pic of them all coated up and ready to go in the oven)

These are definitely not something you can do last minute because they take bout 45 minutes to cook (I’ve learned that the hard way). But they are something that you can cut up and prepare ahead of time so that you can just pop them in the oven. For a while there, I was super on top of things, and would cut up a lot of potatoes at the beginning of the week and put in large gallon ziploc and use them throughout the week for breakfast and dinner. Way easy.

Again, nothing fancy, but good for ya. My “recipes” are more how to cook things, I guess you could say. Real food cooking doesn’t have to be gourmet. But I feel like I’m winning anytime everyone’s happy with something not prepackaged or full of preservatives, and is from the ground—even if does mean slapping some butter (or bacon) on it.